Charles Reiss

I left for Marine Corps boot camp July 21st 1998. I went to sunny southern California to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. After boot camp and Marine Combat Training (MCT) I went to Jacksonville NC and went to school to be a diesel mechanic for the Marine Corps. My first 4 years went by fast. I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station, New River right there in Jacksonville. In November of 99 I volunteered to do a tour in Bosnia. I spent 6 months in Bosnia working with NATO as part of Operation Joint Forge. It was a blast because I got to travel all over the country and I even made a few trips to Croatia to do some missions. The best part was being able to work with all the other countries. I got back to New River in May of 00 and got promoted to Corporal. I spent one more year there before volunteering to go to Okinawa, Japan. I spent a year on the island with 3rd Marine Division, Truck Company, Camp Hansen. I made the decision to re-enlist because I was loving it and couldn’t see doing anything different. I re-enlisted on at Mida Point, a cliff overlooking the ocean where I loved to scuba dive. In July of 2002 I executed orders back to the east coast. I was sent to Camp Lejeune to the 2nd Force Service Support Group (FSSG) and became a marksmanship instructor at the rifle range. I was only there for 6 months before they started taking names for the Invasion of Iraq. I was promoted to Sergeant right before I left the rifle range. In November of 2002 I went to 2nd Maintenance Battalion and started doing all the training to get ready to deploy. We left in January of 2003 and went to Sigonella Navel Base in Italy, where we got on ships and took a 14 day boat ride to Kuwait. It was pretty cool because we got to go right through the Suez Canal. The deployment to Kuwait lasted 5 months. I was at Camp Fox and we were in direct support of the infantry units pushing into Baghdad. I remember the day we invaded Iraq like it was yesterday. We were eating breakfast and got rudely interrupted by incoming. I didn’t even get to finish my coffee! We got home on Fathers Day and that has been the shortest deployment I’ve been on. From June of 2003 to March of 2004 I stayed with 2nd Maintenance Bn. In March of 2004 I was picked to be a lifeguard out on the beach that we have on base. I got lucky because I was the only Sergeant that had a first class swim qual. The training for it was tough. We did training in the pool as well as the ocean. That was a great summer. We had 2 hurricanes and no incidents. July rolled around on of my buddies called me up and said they were getting ready to deploy to Iraq again and they wanted me to come with them. Most of the guys were the same ones I was in Kuwait with. So I said yes and after Labor day the beach closed and I went to Combat Logistics Regiment 25 and started doing training for the upcoming deployment to Iraq. I spent a good bit of time in California training at March Air Force Base and 29 Palms on everything from kicking down doors and killing the bad guys to convoy operations. We left for Iraq February 12th 2005. We were on Camp Taqaddum (TQ) the whole time and got back in September. TQ is between Ramadi and Fallujah. Our mission was pretty much the same; we supported the infantry units and kept pretty busy. I was only back at Camp Lejeune, NC for about 5 months before I got orders back to San Diego CA for recruiting school. I was trying to get back to Lincoln to recruit but got sent to Kearney instead. While on recruiting I had a blast. I met the girl I’m now dating and will probably marry and got promoted to Staff Sergeant. In October of 2007 I left recruiting and went back to Camp Lejeune. I love NC and that’s probably where I’ll end up when I retire in 10 years. I got slated to go with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) in February and we left in March. So, here I am on my 4th deployment. I am loving every minute of it. This deployment has been pretty different. It’s defiantly been my hardest one so far. On our first convoy out we got hit and lost 2 Marines. Last month we found out we got extended for 30 days. Not good news, but it could always be worse. We are working with NATO again. Well, this is only a snap shot of my past 10 years. I’d love to be able to make it to the reunion and catch up. Ya’ll should have some fun! Drink a few cold ones for me! I’ll add some pics soon.